Sophomore Liam McLinskey of the Holy Cross men’s ice hockey team has been chosen as the Hilton Garden Inn Crusader of the Week for February 27 – March 5.
McLinskey notched five goals in the No. 7-seeded Crusaders’ three-game Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal set, including the game-winners in both game 2 and game 3, to defeat the No. 2-seeded and three-time defending champion AIC Yellowjackets.
In game one, McLinskey scored the lone goal for the Crusaders to cut AIC’s lead to 2-1 with less than a minute remaining. With their backs against the wall and down 2-0 in game 2, McLinskey once again cut the AIC lead in half with just over a minute left to play in the second period. His goal gave the Crusaders energy going into the intermission, after which they scored three unanswered goals to open the third period, taking a 4-2 lead. McLinskey tallied the fourth goal of the game as well, which proved to be the game winner.
In the game three tiebreaker, McLinskey scored just under five minutes into the first period to put the Crusaders up 1-0 early and record the first first period goal of the entire series for either side. After a back-and-forth game, the Yellowjackets forced an overtime period. With 1:14 remaining in the first overtime period, McLinskey stopped a clear by the AIC defenseman, finding senior Alex Peterson who sent the puck on net. The rebound off the AIC goaltender’s pad went right to McLinskey, who buried the overtime winner to send the Crusaders to the semifinals for the first time since the 2010-2011 campaign.
McLinskey now leads the Crusaders in goals with 17 and ranks second in points with 21. His five game-winning goals this season is also a team-high.
The Crusaders (15-19-3, 12-12-2 AHA) travel to No. 1-seeded RIT (24-11-1, 18-7-1 AHA) for the Atlantic Hockey semifinals on Friday, March 10, and Saturday, March 11, at 7:05 p.m. The if-necessary game three is slated for Sunday, March 12, at 5:05 p.m. All three games will be played at the Gene Polisseni Center in Rochester, N.Y.
